Horror literature is now represented by a fairly wide range of names. These authors are scattered all over the world. Someone is known in a narrow circle of fans, and someone has incredible fees, fame and success. But, regardless of the fame of the authors, some books continue to scare readers even after years and decades. There are enough of them that neither words nor time will be enough to list this entire list, and everyone has their own understanding of the “terrible” book. Therefore, we will tell you about the ten most terrible books in the world. So let's go!
10. Opening our list is one of the most famous writers working in the horror genre - Stephen King.
It's hard to argue with the extent of his contribution to the genre, but some of his books can scare the hell out of you. A prime example of this is "Pet cemetery".
The 1983 book follows a doctor's family who move to Chicago. The neighbor of the head of the family tells many legends about those places, and among them is the legend of the pet cemetery. The doctor learns that this place is cursed due to the tricks of some evil spirit. But, being a realist, the main character decides to check it out on his own. If you want to get a lot of adrenaline - then this book is perfect for you. Horror will accompany you on every page.
Anyone who has read at least one of his books is familiar with his unorthodox storytelling style. A vivid example of how an original style can also be chilling is the book "Labyrinth".
The desire to tickle your nerves and immerse yourself in a gloomy atmosphere has been inherent in people since ancient times. Horror books were written and published as early as the 13th century, having the appearance of knightly Gothic novels, gradually transforming into stories about the exorcism of the devil and about ghosts, later short stories appeared, imbued with deep psychologism. Having accumulated an impressive cultural history, today horror books are represented by a wide variety of genres that border on science fiction, fantasy and detective. Therefore, everyone can find what is closer to him. But what the best horror books have in common is that they provoke feelings of dread and tension.
A collision with the inevitable, the unknown, that which is higher than human understanding - this topic will always be relevant for any era and any country. Gloomy medieval castles predetermined the appearance of books in the horror genre, as the mysterious corners of family estates, forgotten rooms and family secrets made you think about otherworldly forces. The technical progress of the mid-19th century, a sincere belief in reason, the development of the natural sciences made people think about the clash of nature and science, so horror books appeared about monsters created by man, who subsequently loses control over his offspring. At the turn of the century, the man himself, the study of his inner world, the comprehension of secrets hidden from the eyes, became a popular topic, so the main characters became mentally ill, maniacs and murderers. Modern literature and writers work with a variety of genres, combining the experience of past generations.
Find your horror book
The KnigoPoisk site allows you to find a suitable work for you. If you are interested in horror, the books listed on the site will help you plunge into the tense and chilling atmosphere. But if you have not yet decided on your favorite authors and trends, then it does not matter. The Horror Book Ranking will allow you to find the best examples of literature to start with. Read with mind and pleasure!
As practice has shown, you cannot simultaneously hold the joystick and close your eyes with your palms, frightened by another monster that jumped out of the darkness. At this, the remnants of my nerves got up and left the room, slamming the door loudly. But the inspiration remains. With all the abundance of monsters, the nightmare-ridden city of Yharnam is beautiful. Gothic buildings straight from Romania and Victorian England, ornate lanterns and the moon admiring its reflection in pools of blood. Yes, this is the very dissonance when something so creepy and frightening manages to attract even more. And most of the time, this is what books do. Horror books.
Progress does not stand still, and along with it, human fears change and evolve, taking on a completely unexpected look. Horror is no longer hiding under the bed, or in the closet, he chooses a more sophisticated way to intimidate the victim. He inspires awe with his unpredictability, and not with a sharp saw (although something remains unchanged), he has learned to influence a person from the inside, awakening his own demons from sleep.
The presented selection of books in the genre of horror and mysticism opens up new facets of fear to the reader, when the blood runs cold from the reality of what is happening, but it is already impossible to stop. When the victim can switch places with a bloodthirsty killer and not notice it. When it is enough to go to the mirror to see the most terrible monster.
Dan Simmons "The Terror"
On May 19, 1845, the two ships "Terror" and "Erebus" under the command of Rear Admiral John Franklin left the pier of England, setting off for the harsh Arctic ice in search of a passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But they never returned. Until now, the fate of the missing expedition excites the minds of scientists and sailors. Shrouded in the mystery of disappearance, the Terror and Erebus have joined the list of ghost ships.
Dan Simmons presents to our attention a rather unusual type of literature, a fictional reconstruction of real events - cryptohistory. This is where the author's imagination is truly limitless. Adding mysticism to the already chilling events, the author recreated such a vivid picture of what is happening on the ships trapped in uncharted land that the book breathes arctic cold penetrating to the bones, and the pages turn over with the gnashing of ice on the stern.
Scurvy, the taste of leather belts and strips of flesh torn off in the cold - all this is a diabolical naturalism of the narrative that makes you shiver from the darkness that surrounds you from all sides. The atmosphere of horror is reinforced by despair, hopelessness and hunger, when one glance at a comrade drools and the most terrible monster wakes up in the person himself. A monster, against the background of which death wandering in the ice simply fades.
This is a powerful, breathtaking novel in which we see everything that happens from the first persons of the team. Painstaking elaboration of details, weaving real names and events into the plot, create the effect of complete immersion, forcing fear, even when there is no visual danger. Thanks to the measured style of the author, a book of a thousand pages is read in one breath. Simmons approached the creation of an alternative history with such responsibility that just from the mention "Terror", covered with cold sweat.
“If a gentleman in a tuxedo, sitting in a well-heated library in his London mansion, is able to understand that life is given only once, and it is unhappy, miserable, disgusting, cruel and short, then how can a person who in a cold night pulling a sleigh laden with frozen meat and skins across a nameless island to a frozen sea, under a raging sky, a thousand miles or more from any civilized hearth?Walking towards his death, so terrible that you can’t even imagine.
Joe Hill "Heart Box"
Jude Coyne is a seasoned rock musician who delights his fans with dark, hardcore songs. He is well-to-do and can indulge in nothing, including buying a ghost over the Internet. When the package is delivered to the addressee and the bloodthirsty ghost breaks out ... Wow! What a cunning and dodgy rival Jude comes across. He swings his silver razor and it looks like he won't get away alive.
The novel is written as a finished script for a horror movie. Dynamic and cruel scenes of the protagonist's persecution do not let you take a breath. Chaos reigns on the pages of the book to the last, leaving the reader in confusion: "Who will prevail?"
Joe Hill created a whole and mysterious work. Beautifully written characters and a bit of humor in the dialogues - like a cherry on a cake, attract attention to the debut novel of the son of that same King.
True craftsmanship Hilla manifests itself in a love story appropriate for the sinister plot, giving the heroes hope for a happy ending.
“Most likely, ghosts have always lived not in castles and enchanted rooms, but in the minds of people. And if he wants to shoot a ghost, then he will have to aim the muzzle at his temple.
"He created melodies out of hate, perversion and pain, and they came to him, bouncing along to the song, hoping he would let them sing along."
Jean-Christophe Granget "The Passenger"
In psychiatry, there is such a disease as the “passenger without luggage” syndrome, in which a person who has experienced a psychological shock blocks this memory in his memory, and from the remaining fragments he forms a completely new personality that lives his life until the next traumatic situation. And then everything repeats again. The brain creates personalities according to the principle of a nesting doll, where the original personality that requires protection is the smallest doll.
The nature of this syndrome is trying to disassemble the brilliant psychiatrist Matthias Frere, when his patient, a witness to a brutal murder, turns to him for help. And what was the confusion of Matthias, who discovered that he not only suffered from this disease himself, but was also involved in a series of bloody murders that hit the city.
In this excellent, mystical thriller, grunge plays with the reader, dynamically changing scenery and costumes. Only one thing remains unchanged - the hero's escape from the death chasing him. The atmosphere of all kinds of reincarnations of the personality is accompanied by murders based on ancient Greek myths. The plot every now and then abruptly turns 180 degrees, not making it clear to the end, who is Matthias in essence? A cold-blooded maniac or an amnesiac victim?
grunge brings a new chapter to the world of horror, in which the fear of mortal torture gives way to a more perverse device - the loss of oneself. From the reality of what is happening, trembling penetrates to the bones, and one mystery follows another, spinning the tangle of inexplicable events ever tighter. And only an unexpected ending will put everything in its rightful place.
“The human soul is not the skin of an animal, which becomes better from tanning. The human soul is a hypersensitive, fluttering, fragile membrane. From the blows, she dies and becomes covered with scars. And he begins to fear the world.
“The most formidable weapon in the world remains the human brain. If Hitler had taken a strong sedative, world history would have taken a very different path.”
1699 The height of the witch hunt and its evil appears in Faunt Royal, as if by notes playing a play of nightmares of local residents: crops rot, fires, pestilence, poisonous fumes rise from the swamps. It seems that the end is near and the blame for it will be unlike the others - a proud and lonely woman. Witch. The sentence is about to be carried out, but the dark forces still do not leave the city. To investigate what is happening in Faunt Royal, Magistrate Woodworth arrives with a young clerk, Matthew Corbett. Now the sophisticated tortures of darkness take on a completely different turn and everyone can be at the stake.
Completely unpredictable plot. The darkness and secrets that accompany the characters do not let you relax, and even the author throws firewood of mysticism into the fire. The characters are charismatic and charming so much that parting with them is almost physically painful.
"Voice of the night bird" is pure delight. McCammon devilishly gorgeous and presents the reader with a perfect setting for witchcraft and superstition. The continuation of the series is "Queen of Bedlam", where the action takes place already in New York.
“According to all the rules and predictions of the calendar, the pleasant and cheerful month of May should already have come as sovereign master, but this year he entered stealthily, like a ragamuffin stealing candles in a church.”
“Everyone lives ... Yes. Live. They live with a crippled spirit and broken ideals. Years pass, and it is forgotten that they were mutilated and broken. They accept it as a gift when they get older, as if maiming and breaking is a royal favor. And the same spirit of hope and ideals of a young soul are considered stupid, petty ... and subject to mutilation and demolition, because everyone lives as they should live.
Clive Barker "Books of Blood"
Storybooks Clive Barker united by the themes of death, the nature of fear and doom. In the name of saving the mind, it should be deprived, because the writer prepares such monstrous trials for his heroes.
Every story is a living nightmare. Everything is in abundance here: maniacs, monsters, blood and corpses of varying degrees of decomposition. All the best for a true horror gourmet. Anxious, grotesque atmosphere exacerbates all the senses at once. with the dead Barker it's dangerous to joke - awkward movement, and you've got a ticket for the midnight meat train. One way.
"Books of Blood" fully justify their name. They are stunning, carnivorous and filled to the brim with the author's infernal fantasy. But how alive and naturalistic it is, this fantasy, which becomes uncomfortable from the very first lines.
We live in Yandex.Zene, try. There is a channel in Telegram. Subscribe, we will be pleased, and it will be convenient for you 👍 Meow!“The dead have their own highways. Laid in those inhospitable wastelands that begin outside of our lives, they are filled with streams of departing souls. Their disturbing rumble can be heard in the deep flaws of the universe - it comes from potholes and cracks left by cruelty, violence and vice. Their feverish turmoil can be glimpsed when the heart is ready to burst into pieces - it is then that the gaze opens up to what is supposed to be secret.
Being a writer, especially in the horror genre, is extremely dangerous. After all, this kind of activity involves a lot of risks: writing books, you can inadvertently dissolve your imagination and go crazy, entangled in realities. Or you can go even further and identify yourself with some psychopathic killer from the book or revive a couple of violent characters. But the risk of these brave people is worth it, because without their rich imagination, the horror genre would have nothing to boast of.
Agree, if they, who had a hand in creating literally everything that pleases us with horror, did not devote at least a small part of the works of this genre, this would be the height of injustice. Movies of this kind have never squealed fashion and they were not put on the conveyor, as once horrors about aliens and giant monsters, and now pseudo-documentaries. This is nothing more than a distinctive feature of several dozen films, but still there are enough of them so that even those who have seen a lot of scary movies have plenty to choose from. And we will pay attention to the most remarkable horror films about writers in this article.
From Masters
As you know, among all the masters of horror, our dear Stephen King is famous for his special love for inscribing his colleagues in scary stories. In the works of the king of horror, writers appear slightly less often than Maine residents, and slightly more often than people suffering from arthritis. His pen belongs to the most famous works of the horror genre about writers, so we will not torment anyone and proceed immediately to a review of his work. Of course, King made his unbearable contribution to the cause of horror about the representatives of the writing fraternity in the book format familiar to him, but we will not dwell on the books in detail, especially since most of them were translated into the language of cinema.
So, for the first time, the writer-protagonist appeared already in King's second published novel, The Lot. True, the emphasis in the work is more on vampires and cursed houses than on the writing profession. According to the plot, the main character, who returned to his hometown of Salem's Lot, is faced with an ominous house that frightened him as a child. But now new owners have settled there. And when strange events begin to occur in the city, he is forced to confront the vampires. The television adaptation of Salem's Vampires (Salem's Lot, 1979) was directed by Toub Hooper, and it is deservedly considered one of the best works of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre director. The Lot was filmed twice: another television version was created - Salem's Lot "(Salem's Lot, 2004).
The following Stephen King book was made into the film The Shining (1980), a cult horror film from the eminent Stanley Kubrick. Jack Nicholson played Jack Torrance, who, deciding to combine writing a new novel with a job as caretaker of the vacant Overlook Hotel, goes crazy over the course of one winter. Perhaps it was this tape that was the main inspiration for the creators of future horror films on writer's themes. The Shining is still regularly featured on lists of the scariest films of all time and is a recognized horror classic. However, after the release, the picture was received with hostility, and even today opinions about it can vary from a “masterpiece” to “this is not King, how is it possible ?!”. This is mainly due to significant discrepancies with the literary source. Among those dissatisfied with Kubrick's picture was Stephen King himself, which was one of the reasons for the creation of a three-part version of the novel for television. The mini-series The Shining (1997) was directed by the great King film adaptation specialist Mick Garris, and the script was written by the Master himself. In addition, Steve was involved in the film adaptation and as an executive producer.
The most famous horror about the writer is followed by the most titled - (Misery, 1990) directed by Rob Reiner. According to the novel, the famous author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) finds himself a victim not of imagination, but - even worse - of his "biggest fan". After a car accident on a snowy highway, he is rescued by Annie Wilkes, a former nurse. Trapped in her home, the writer, as the film's tagline puts it, "writes to stay alive." "Misery" is also an undeniable classic of the genre, but is best remembered for the performance of Kathy Bates, who created the image of one of the brightest movie villains and was awarded the Oscar and Golden Globe awards for this.
In The Dark Half (1993), the writer is confronted by a mystical double. After the author of numerous bestselling books tried to get rid of the pseudonym by burying his fictional alter ego, his dark half returned to turn the hero's life into a nightmare. King's novel of the same name was adapted for cinema and staged by the godfather of the living dead, George Romero, and Timothy Hutton played both the main roles - the writer and his double. However, too restrained criticism and failure at the box office led to the fact that today the film is relatively little known, despite the participation of such legendary personalities in its creation.
In the psychological thriller "Secret Window" (Secret Window, 2004), based on the story "Secret Window, Secret Garden", the author (Johnny Depp) is also haunted: here he is pursued by a mysterious stranger (John Turturro), who accuses him of plagiarism. Unlike The Dark Half, this film was a commercial success and is still popular today, mainly due to the stellar cast.
On television, the theme of horror writers comes up as often as on the big screens, and in the mini-series Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From The Stories Of Stephen King (2006) as many as two of the eight series, representatives of this profession are present as protagonists. In Umney's Last Case, the author changes lives with his character, and in The Road Virus Heads North, a popular horror writer buys a reality-changing painting.
While naming The Shining as the most famous film about the writer, it's worth adding a small caveat, as for the younger generation of fans of the genre, 1408 (2007), about the skeptical author Mike Enslin (John Cusack), who, not attaching importance to superstitions, he settles in the most “cursed” room of the Dolphin Hotel and on the very first night he regrets it very much. 1408 was a box office hit and is one of the best King adaptations of the 2000s.
The two-part TV movie Bag of Bones (2011) was Mick Garris' seventh directorial project based on the work of Stephen King. It is about a successful author (Pierce Brosnan) who, after the death of his wife, returns to his old house by the lake and there gains experience in communicating with representatives of the other world. However, the transfer of the novel of the same name to the screen cannot be called successful: the mini-series disappointed the fans of the Master and has mostly negative criticism.
The above is not the whole list of appearances of masters of the word in the film adaptations of the works of Stephen King. In a number of films based on the works of the Great and Terrible, although the writing brethren are present, they do not play much weight in the overall picture, which is exemplified by It (It, 1990) and The Tommyknockers (The Tommyknockers, 1993). In his favorite stories, where a small group of people get into a big mess, the writers can easily be secondary characters, as in The Langoliers (The Langoliers, 1995) and Desperation (Desperation, 2006).
The merits of Stephen King in the field of creating horror about his colleagues can hardly be overestimated, but there were other luminaries of the genre, whose work cannot be ignored in more detail.
Ira Levin, revered by fans of horror literature for Rosemary's Baby and beyond, wrote the play that was made into the thriller Deathtrap (Deathtrap, 1982). The famous playwright (Michael Caine) fails after failure, and after another failure, one of his students (Christopher Reeve) sends a masterpiece play, from which the author comes up with an insidious plan ... In addition to excellent acting, the picture is worthy of attention due to the famously twisted plot.
A couple of times forced writers to experience the horrors on the other side of the works and Clive Barker. In Rawhead Rex (1986), a horror writer travels to the Irish outback to collect material for new works, when a farmer accidentally releases an ancient demon, causing chaos to sweep the village. This is the second feature film to be made from Barker's own screenplay, based in turn on the story "The Naked Brain" from Book of Blood 3. The result did not satisfy Clive and after the "King of Evil" he himself began producing and directing adaptations of his own literary works.
But the writers did not return to the ranks of the protagonists of his films soon: in the episode "Valerie on the Stairs" (Valerie on the Stairs, 2006) of the series "Masters of Horror" (Masters of Horror, 2005-2007). The director was Mick Garris, the creator of the entire series, who also adapted Barker's script of the same name. It is about failed writers who have taken up residence in a hostel for those who have not yet published their first book; in history, as is often the case with Barker, there was a terrible demon.
The fantasy thriller Contact (Communion, 1989), starring Christopher Walken, is based on the autobiographical book of the same name. The author Whitley Strieber himself, known primarily for the vampire novel The Hunger, assures that it is autobiographical, but it is difficult to assert the authenticity of the events described, since it deals with the experience of meeting with extraterrestrial beings. The film shows an incident experienced by the writer on a December night in 1985 in his country house.
Horror "The Perfect Killer" (Mr. Murder, 1998) - adaptation of the novel by Dean Koontz, published in Russian under the title "Mr. Killer"). The author of thrillers and his family is not given a quiet life by his double - a ruthless killer, created as a result of an unsuccessful military experiment.
Another film, although not at all scary, is also based on the short story of the same name by Dean Koontz. The fantastic detective Black River (Black River, 2001) tells how the writer settles in the utopian town of Black River, where strange events begin to occur, and, having tried to leave there, he realizes that it is not so easy to do so.
Both films, like many other film adaptations of Dean Koontz, were made for television and are now known mainly among the author's fans.
About the classics
Having dealt with the modern masters of horror, it's time to move on to the classics. But let's look at them a little differently - when they are on the other side of the screen. After all, the classics of horror often became movie heroes themselves; such films will be discussed further.
The events that took place in a villa on Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816 formed the basis of three films at once, which were released one after another in a short period: Gothic (Gothic, 1986), Summer with Ghosts (Haunted Summer, 1988) and Row the Wind (Remando al viento, 1988). Each of them is a kind of champion in the number of available writers. There are already four of them, and all the real classics: George Byron, Mary and Percy Shelley, John Polidori. It was during the period shown in the films that Mary Shelley conceived the plot of the novel about Frankenstein, and Polidori - the story "The Vampire", one of the first works of the vampire genre in English literature.
Steven Soderbergh's mystical thriller "Kafka" (Kafka, 1991) combines the facts from the biography of the classic and the storylines of his surrealistic works (mainly the novels "The Castle" and "The Trial"). Franz Kafka was played by Jeremy Irons, and the main advantage of the tape was the skillful transfer of not the plot, but the gloomy atmosphere of his works.
Howard Phillips Lovecraft is not only a cult writer and one of the founders of the horror genre in literature, but also the main character of horror (Necronomicon, 1993). He was played by Jeffrey Combs, best known for his role as Herbert West in Reanimator. According to the plot, Lovecraft finds the legendary "Necronomicon" and, under its influence, tells three supernatural stories; all - inspired by the works of the writer, with excellent special effects and monsters. The role of the dreamer from Providence is not limited to this: in the finale, the classic will have to fight one of the monsters himself.
Burial Of The Rats (1995) is a film about how Bram Stoker becomes a prisoner in a community of bloodthirsty women. Thanks to their writing talent, they saved his life, unlike other captive men. This horror, stuffed with mysticism and eroticism, was jointly produced for television by filmmakers from the USA and Russia and is a free adaptation of the writer's story of the same name, one of the features of which was that the author of Dracula himself took the place of the narrator.
In From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (1999), one of the central characters is the master of the dark story Ambrose Bierce. The action takes place during the American Civil War, and the authors tried to tie to the plot the disappearance of the writer, which remains a mystery to this day.
Another biographical secret was used by the creators of the gothic detective with a "bloody" rating (The Raven, 2012). Starting from the fact that the last week of Edgar Allan Poe's life is full of questions, they offered their own version of events from the life of the master before his death. Starring John Cusack.
Edgar Poe more often than other horror legends became the hero of a scary movie. And this is not surprising: the personality of the writer was shrouded in secrets during his lifetime, so is it worth saying how many mystical stories arose around the author of "Murder on the Rue Morgue" with the advent of cinema. Edgar Poe - a movie hero can also be seen in the films "Castle of Blood" (Danza macabra, 1964), "In the arms of a spider" (Nella stretta morsa del ragno, 1971), "The Specter of Edgar Allan Poe" (The Specter of Edgar Allan Poe, 1974 ), "Shadow in the Dark" (Descendant, 2003), "The Black Cat" (The Black Cat, 2007) (episode of the series "Masters of Horror") ...
In the Spanish mystical detective story The Valdemar Legacy (La herencia Valdemar, 2010), one can observe a whole “constellation” of horror classics: although in episodic roles, Howard F. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker and Aleister Crowley are present. The film is divided into two parts and is dedicated to the history of a gloomy mansion with ancient Lovecraftian monsters.
About writer's housewarming
The plot, in which the writer settles in a creepy house with a bad story, located somewhere on the periphery, naively hoping to work on his future masterpiece in peace and comfort, is somewhat popular with horror writers. For this we say thank you to Sei King.
This is exactly the plot of the comedy horror "House" (House, 1985), staged by Steve Miner after the second and third parts of the Friday the 13th movie series. In it, the protagonist is constantly distracted from writing a new horror novel by otherworldly creatures that live in the house. "House" successfully fulfills its entertainment function (at least it was capable of it at the time of its release). Although not considered one of the most well-deserved films of the genre, this did not stop him from becoming the ancestor of a four-film franchise. The heroes of the sequels, however, already represent other professions.
There was a place in our review for the Japanese urban legend about ghosts. Based on the novel Summer with Strangers by Tahiti Yamada, which was published even in Russian, the film Summer with Ghosts (Ijintachi tono natsu, 1988) was made. Its main character, a screenwriter working on TV, moves into an apartment in a high-rise building after a divorce. At night, only two windows are lit in the house: his and that of a lonely young woman, whom he meets. Later in the city, the screenwriter meets an elderly couple who look exactly like his long-dead parents, after which the intensity of mystical incidents increases ...
In the thriller Half Light (2006), Demi Moore plays a best-selling author who, after the tragic death of her son, settles in a secluded fishing village in Scotland, not far from a lonely lighthouse. There she meets a man who, according to local residents, died at the lighthouse seven years ago. The plot seems quite simple, although it contains elements of a detective, drama and even melodrama, and only the denouement dispels doubts about the genre of the tape.
Half Light was not a hit, but very similar films began to appear soon after. Perhaps the notorious crisis of ideas is to blame for everything, but the fact is that in the 2000s, the ranks of writers who settled where they should not, in the cinema, began to replenish more actively.
Released immediately on video, Deadline (2009) tells the story of a writer (Brittany Murphy) who moves into a new house and discovers that she lives there not alone, but with the ghost of the previous occupant. Looking through her old videos, the heroine gradually restores the chain of terrible events until she comes to an unexpected denouement.
In the mystical horror (albeit with a “children's” rating PG-13) “Cursed” (The New Daughter, 2009), the once successful author (Kevin Costner), after a difficult divorce, moves into a new house with two children, and everything would be fine if mystical things would not be happening on the ground. Then something strange begins to happen to the eldest daughter, who often walks near the ominous hill nearby ... The film is full of stamped scarecrows, in a word, this is a typical horror movie designed for a mass audience. At the same time, "Cursed" had only a limited release, after which it was released on DVD.
In French (Derrière les murs, 2011), a young writer (Létitia Casta) arrives in a provincial town to work on a new book, but instead has to fight her own hallucinations. It differs from the other tapes given above in a three-dimensional format, which is completely inappropriate in films of this direction.
About writers-maniacs
Less often than ordinary new settlers, horror writers are crazy maniacs and merciless killers. At this point, you need to say hello to old Steve again. True, all the following films cannot be put on a par with his "The Shining": frankly, these are the most "fake" ones. But since maniac writers are very remarkable characters, and since situations where they are armed with something more menacing than a pen or a typewriter are of real interest, we will nevertheless dwell on them in more detail.
The most famous example is Cabin by the Lake (1999), in which screenwriter Stanley Caldwell combines his day job with his inhumane hobby of serial killing. Both of his cases are closely related: real murders are accurately described in his new script. The maniac pursues an original goal: he builds the so-called "flesh flower garden" - a garden at the bottom of the lake from the bodies of murdered girls. A typical TV horror movie with some comedy elements, but the unusual plot speaks in its favor.
It seems that it’s impossible to say that the “Lake House” liked the viewer too much, but nevertheless, the psychopath screenwriter returned in the sequel. It's not uncommon for films about crazy maniacs, as well as the fact that sequels are inferior to the original. Return to Cabin by the Lake (2001) added dark humor but lost all originality. According to the plot, two years after the events of the first picture, according to Caldwell's sensational scenario, the shooting of the film still begins, moreover, on the same lake where the murders took place. But the filming process is accompanied by failures: after Stanley Caldwell entered the site under the guise of a person who once knew the local celebrity personally, people begin to disappear there. "Return ..." cannot be called a failure, but the story of the killer screenwriter ended on it. Thus, a one-of-a-kind horror writing franchise took place.
The little-known psychological thriller Final Draft (2007), a Canadian production, also tells about a crazy horror screenwriter. Having lost his sense of reality, he kills people while a fictional evil clown lives in his head. With such an interesting idea, unfortunately, one can only regret the mediocre implementation of the plot.
In an Italian splatter (Ubaldo Terzani Horror Show, 2010), a young filmmaker meets a popular horror writer to collaborate on a script, but soon realizes that horror can be brought to life just as easily as described in the books... original, but notable for being made in the best traditions of the classic giallo.
From movie legends
Let's finish our review with a number of much more extraordinary films that do not have much in common: only that writers are present as characters, and famous masters of horror films are directors.
Released long before King and associates, House by the River (1950) was directed by Fritz Lang, a German film classic who became a world legend in the era of silent cinema. It is a detective noir thriller in which the protagonist-writer accidentally kills a young maid in his house and tries to cover up the crime by dumping her body into a river. The film did not become a hit upon release, but now, thanks to the name of the director, "River House" is ranked among the noir classics.
The Italian masters of horror are also no strangers to the theme of writers. This fact is confirmed by Dario Argento's paintings "The Bird with Crystal Plumage" (L "uccello dalle piume di cristallo, 1970) and" Trembling "(Tenebre, 1982). The plots of both films obey all the laws of giallo, and their main characters are American writers, arriving in Italy.
In "Bird ...", having become a witness to a crime, the author of detectives becomes involved in the affairs of the police, and then begins his own investigation into the serial murders of girls. This is the first picture of Argento as a director, and after the release, the tape set a box office record in Italy. She thundered abroad, which made the young Dario famous both in Europe and in America.
In the Italian master's later film, a series of brutal murders takes place, embodied from a novel just written. After the author receives notes from the killer, he decides to take matters into his own hands and get to the criminal. In Tremors, the director's favorite tricks are used with might and main, which have become the hallmark of not only Argento, but the entire "yellow" genre.
The film of the cult Canadian director David Cronenberg "Naked Lunch" (Naked Lunch, 1991) is a free adaptation of the controversial novel by William S. Burroughs. This psychedelic picture has no direct relation to our genre, but when viewing it, one cannot help but feel that it is Cronenbergian creepy. There seems to be no point in describing the plot, but in short, it turns out the following: the hero types on a typewriter that looks like a giant talking beetle reports from the narcotic universe of Interzone, and they subsequently turn into the novel "Naked Lunch".
John Carpenter directed one of the key horror films about writers - (In the Mouth of Madness, 1995). The protagonist is not a writer, but an insurance agent - on behalf of the publishing house, he goes in search of the missing author of horror novels Sutter Kane, whose books are in fantastic demand ("more popular than Stephen King"). Readers start to go crazy, chaos and violence reign in the streets, and Kane, hiding in a strange town that is not on the maps, prepares the world for the apocalypse. "In the Mouth of Madness" has many references to the work of King and Lovecraft and unconventionally explores the theme of the writer. It can be called a reference horror film, despite the failure at the box office and a mixed reception from critics.
Francis Ford Coppola's original horror film Between (Twixt, 2011) is about a third-rate horror writer played by '90s sex symbol Val Kilmer. Arriving in a provincial town, he is fond of investigating a series of murders, communicating with ghosts along the way (he also meets the classic Edgar Allan Poe). Like other late works of the master, "Between" was filmed at Coppola's own expense and is deeply personal for the director - it even has biographical elements - and, probably, therefore, not everyone will perceive it well.
These, in our opinion, are the most noteworthy horror films about writers. As promised at the very beginning, there is plenty to choose from: paintings with the only thing in common - the profession of the protagonist - do not have any other framework. Often, the topic of writers comes with a wide variety of horror subgenres (they have especially good compatibility with films about “cursed” houses) and therefore will be of interest to almost everyone who loves the horror genre.
If you follow books in the horror genre, you probably know the name Nail Izmailov. It was under this pseudonym that the writer released two horror novels - Ubyr and Ubyr. Nobody dies." We liked both "Ubyrs" so much that we asked Shamil to make a list of books for you, from which it becomes creepy in a good way.
So, we give the floor to Shamil: “I have always liked not the canon, but attempts to hack it or use it for unusual purposes. Therefore, the list turned out to be somewhat specific. I can only assure you that each of the items on this list not only made me tremble in the course of the piece, but also sent me to the easy groggy at the end. This, in my opinion, is one of the main criteria for class reading. I tried to do without well-known positions. Authors are ranked alphabetically.
- Maria Galina, Malaya Wilderness
- Leonid Kaganov, stories "Khomka" and "Until Dawn" (obscene version)
- Stephen King, "It"
- Stephen King, Misery
- Andrey Lazarchuk, stories "Mummy" and "Out of the Darkness"
Bixby is the quintessential burly literary tinkerer who's written tons of fantasy series and magazine stories with flashy covers. One went down in history - this one. A tiny story in a brilliant translation by Arkady Strugatsky (under a pseudonym - S. Berezhkov). "We live well!" Today it looks more like a social pamphlet, and in our conditions it is also a political pamphlet, but it frightens not like a child. Rather, childish, which is even scarier.
Smart Soviet publishers and literary critics adored Bradbury, so they actively positioned him as a singer of humanism and a master of philosophical fiction. The trick was a success: the fans managed not to ignite the dark side of Bradbury's work, who is actually the genius of a cruel parable, despite the fact that pieces from this side came across, for example, in the classic "Martian Chronicles" ("There will be gentle rain"), and according to the terrible "Veld" even the Soviet cinema was filmed. Now, of course, Bradbury has been published more or less completely - but, for example, his exemplary horror novel “Something terrible is coming” plowed me much less than the story “Ferris Wheel” read in childhood in the magazine “Around the World”, from which the novel, in fact, grew.
Maria Galina is a typical “friend among strangers”: she is rightfully one of the top authors of the so-called Bollitra (great literature), while weaving plots from masslit material - and it turns out about life, not the best, but ours. The action of the first part of "Little Wilderness" takes place in the most prosperous sleepy Odessa in 1979: a sharashka office called SES-2, whose duties include protecting this section of the Soviet border from the penetration of non-material threats, clicked through the invasion of some kind of horror - and the station employees are responsible for this will have to do not only before the party committee, the court and Moscow. You will have to answer with your life and soul. A very small second part takes place in 1987 in a gloomy countryside, through which two stubborn citizens make their way to the main village - obviously bruised by something and obviously hoping for something. After the first story, sweeping and desperate, the second, restrained and coldish, looks pale - like the quest plot against the backdrop of the multilinear action of SES-2. Galina pulls and pulls this pallor with ruthless precision, and then tears her to the jesters, to the Lesser Wilderness - to a flash in the whole sky and lethargy in her chest.
Kaganov aka lleo is a professional laugher, a Runet guru and a highly technical text writer who can write anything about anything. That's why I don't really like to read it. But I read this couple of stories - and imbued. Very different, hopeless in different ways, equally scary.
The most universal and serious horror from the man who made the low genre highly paid and respectable. There is almost too much of everything in this novel - fear, bright dreams, blood, pages, murdered children, first feelings, violence, love, drunkenness, perversions, flashbacks - in general, everything that normal fans love King for.
I'm crazy, and my favorite is still the novel "Dead Zone", mastered a quarter of a century ago in the journal "Foreign Literature" and has nothing to do with horror. "It" is in second place. The book, which forever inscribed the image of a creepy clown in the gallery of universal evil, was published in 1986. But Soviet children got acquainted with this image two years earlier: in 1984, Vladislav Krapivin’s brilliant story “A Summer Holiday in Starogorsk” was published, in which a clown sent by aliens frightened teenagers a little less.
Among other things, King is interesting for his mercilessly pragmatic attitude towards his own person. He made himself an episodic (and not the most attractive) hero of the epic The Dark Tower - and the dramatic appearances of the writer King a couple of times saved the hellishly long cycle from falling into burdensome meaninglessness. King resorted to less overt exploitation of his own person all the time. It is clear that everyone does this, but not everyone makes the writer the main character over and over again. King did - and won, along the way covering related topics of creative crises, graphomania, neurostimulation and whatnot (The Shining, The Ballad of a Flexible Bullet, The Dark Half, Secret Window, Secret Garden, then almost everywhere). In Misery, the author closed the topic of responsibility to fans - so much so that most sane fiction writers have since shied away from communicating with single romantic fans with a background in medical institutions and an ax in a closet.
Lazarchuk is actually a science fiction writer who knows how and loves to scare in a variety of ways, both with episodes (in the spectrum from the psychedelic collapse of reality in Soldiers of Babylon to merciless necromagic and the chthonic holocaust of Caesar's Joy) river” (about voracious Morlocks from the outskirts of the industrial site).
But personally, two early stories frightened me much more - about the trip of children to the eternally living Lenin and about the fact that even adults do not need to be afraid of the dark - they need to be afraid of their victory over fear.
A mortally tired vampire girl and her sick quasi-dad make a stir in the November Stockholm of 1981, in which alcoholics read Dostoevsky with hatred, the stricken hero hides enuresis with the help of a foam rubber ball in his pants, and the Soviet a submarine that ran aground in Swedish waters. A chilly but brilliant book.
The author of iconic sci-fi sagas and low-profile horrors has risen to the cultural elite by offering the reader a new version of conspiracy theories: Simmons began to crush ancient mysteries with wild but carefully substantiated solutions. The most successful was the first experiment, in which the author deceives the cunning reader twice. First, instead of the expected thriller, he slipped a verbose, boring and purely realistic reconstruction of the report on the Arctic campaign of the Erebus and Terror ships, which disappeared in the middle of the 19th century, setting off in search of the Northwest Passage to Canada. According to Simmons, the dogmatism of planning, the swagger of command and theft of suppliers, which traditionally ruined expeditions, was supplemented by the main factor incompatible with life: a monster living in ice that emerges from any clot of the polar night, casually bites a person along with a rhea and loves to lay out puzzles from fragments of human bodies . The first 500 pages of the 900-page volume are devoted to a detailed escalation of the nightmare: the crew sits on frozen ships, weekly carries the next corpses into the holds infested with rats and looks longingly into the future. And the reader is even sadder. And then Simmons deceives the reader once again by putting him, along with the characters, into an ending that was impossible to imagine, and which captures, like in childhood. And scary accordingly.
Not so much frightening as disturbingly puzzling cycle of dry, harsh and very catchy stories, in each of which the hero, then a Komsomol member of twenty-five thousand, then a Red Army soldier with a flying detachment of the NKVD, then a special doctor, or even bombed with a truck, collides with devils and werewolves jumping out from cellars and forests of the Voronezh outback. Much, as Shchepetnev should, is explained by the intrigues of the Soviet government, demolishing churches and blowing up power units, but the author, as, again, he is supposed to, makes it clear to an impartial reader that the Bolsheviks only removed the lid from the infernal incubator that they did not equip. A couple of times Shchepetnev, who has been playing with an alternative course of history for a long time, could not resist rudely sticking a classic plot into real village life. To show, for example, how the story of Gogol's "Viya" would be seen by a left-wing traveler who, along the party line, spends the night in a church while Khoma is being sausageed to the cries of "And you, Brutus!" Or how events would have turned out at the Dead Climber's Hotel if natural scientists and special laboratory assistants had gathered there, and instead of aliens, zombies with werewolves were naughty. I have to report that nothing good came of it anyway. Some of the main characters remained alive - and that's bread. Black is like that.
